Psychodynamic Approach Flashcards
State the three assumptions of the psychodynamic approach
- Most of the influences on our behaviour come from the unconscious mind
- Our psyche is made up of several parts that are continually at war with each other
- All children go through a series of psychosexual stages and if they experience unresolved conflict this can affect adult life
Explain how Freud describes the structure of personality
He described it as ‘tripartite’, meaning it was composed of three parts – Id, Ego, and Superego
Describe the Id
The Id is present at birth and is the primitive part of our personality which operates on the pleasure principle; it is selfish and demands immediate gratification
Describe the Ego
The Ego develops around the age of two years and works on the reality principle; it is the mediator between the other two parts of the personality and its role is to reduce conflicting demands between the Id and the Superego through employing defence mechanisms
Describe the Superego
The Superego forms at the end of the phallic stage and is based on the morality principle which represents the ideal self and moral standards of the child’s same-sex parent; it punishes the ego for wrongdoing by making us feel guilty
State how Freud’s iceberg theory relates to the parts of the psyche
Id – unconscious
Superego – preconscious
Ego – conscious
Describe defence mechanisms
Unconscious strategies used by the Ego to help balance the conflicting demands of the Id and the Superego
State and outline the three main defence mechanisms employed by the Ego
- Repression – forcing a distressing memory out of the conscious mind
- Denial – refusing to acknowledge some aspect of reality
- Displacement – transferring feelings from true source of distressing emotion onto a substitute target
State the five psychosexual stages in order
- Oral (0-1 years)
- Anal (1-3 years)
- Phallic (3-6 years)
- Latency (6 years to puberty)
- Genital (puberty-death)
State the conflict and fixation in the oral stage
• Conflicts= forceful feeding, food deprivation, or early weaning
• Consequences of fixation= oral fixation – smoking, chewing pens and fingernails, overeating and drinking, sarcasm and verbal hostility
State the conflict and fixation in the anal stage
• Conflicts= too harsh or too lax during toilet training
• Consequences of fixation=
o Too harsh toilet training= anally retentive personality – obsessive, tidy, neat, uptight
o Too lax toilet training= anally expulsive personality – sloppy, disorganised, defiant, reckless, and excessive generosity
State the conflict and fixation in the phallic stage
• Conflicts= abnormal family set up leading to unusual relationship with mother or father
• Consequences of fixation= phallic personality – narcissistic, reckless, and possibly homosexual
State the conflict and fixation in the latency stage
• Conflicts= interacting with same sex peers
• No fixation during this stage
State the conflict and fixation in the genital stage
• Conflicts= establishing intimate relationships with opposite sex
• Consequences of fixation= fixation at this stage is what should happen and indicates a well-adjusted adult
In which stage does the Oedipus and Electra complex occur?
The phallic stage
Outline the Oedipus complex
• Boys develop a sexual desire for their mother and so see their father as a rival and feel hatred towards them
• Fearing that their father will castrate them, boys repress their feelings for their mother and begin identifying with their father
• Boys internalise their fathers’ gender role and moral values
Outline the Electra complex
• Girls experience penis envy – they desire their father as the penis is the primary love object, and hate their mother
• Girls then give up the desire for their father over time and replace this with a desire for a baby (identifying with their mother in the process)
Name and describe the case study which shows support for the Oedipus complex
Little Hans:
• Had a severe phobia of white horses with black bits around their mouth and wearing blinkers
• Freud interpreted this phobia as a form of displacement in which his repressed fear of his father was transferred onto horses
What are the three assumptions of humanistic psychology?
- Humans have free will and are active agents – they are able to control and determine their own development.
- Humans strive towards achieving self-actualisation.
- To be psychologically healthy the perceived self and ideal self must be congruent.
3 strengths of the psychodynamic approach
Explanatory power:
Draws attention to and strengthens the connection between childhood experiences and later development.
Gerard McCarthy (1999) studied 40 adult woman and found that the type of attachment they had when they were children had impacted their relationships as adults.
Real world application:
Freud is widely regarded as the pioneer of talking therapy. He brought to the world a new form of therapy – psychoanalysis. It was the first attempt to treat mental disorders psychologically rather than physically. Psychoanalysis claims to help clients by bringing their repressed emotions and memories into their conscious mind so they can be understood and dealt with. From these observations during sessions, Freud and fellow psychologists were able to demonstrate potential psychological rather than biological treatments for disorders such as depression and anxiety .Psychoanalysis is the forerunner in many modern-day talking therapies and modern day psychiatry still utilises Freudian psychoanalytic techniques which highlights the value of the approach and its theories.
Strengths of the psychodynamic approach. Displaced Aggression [Dollard 1939] ‘You can’t kick the boss, so you kick the cat.’
Dollard thought that getting aggressive cleared the mind of frustrations [a Catharsis], and life could then go on as normal.
3 Limitations of the psychodynamic approach
Alpha biased:
Freud argued that through the Oedipus Complex boys develop a strong superego., as they identify with their father as they fear castration if they do not regulate their sexual desire towards their mother. According to Freud, girls do not develop such a strong superego as they face less pressure to identify with the same sex parent (their mother). This is because they blame their mother for castrating them and have penis envy, leading them to have a greater identification with their father. Such claims lead to the idea that women are inferior to men as they are less morally developed than men, so exaggerating a difference between the sexes.
Untestable concepts:
Karl Popper proposed that the psychodynamic approach does not meet the scientific criterion of falsification – it is not open to empirical testing. There is little objective evidence to support the approach. This affords the psychodynamic theory the status of pseudoscience (‘fake’ science) rather than real science.
Case study method Freud’s theory was based on the intensive study of single individuals. Although Freud’s observations were detailed and carefully recorded, critics have suggested that it is not possible to make such universal claims about human nature based on studies of such a small number of individuals who were psychologically abnormal. Furthermore, Freud’s interpretations were highly subjective. For example, in the case study of Little Hans, it is highly unlikely that any other researcher would have drawn the same conclusions
